How do you periods affect your rides?

[Jiffer]

I know I've read a thread somewhere before about how periods affect your rides ... but can't find it. For me, my periods never used to affect my rides that much. If anything, maybe the second day, when my flow is heaviest and I just don't feel so great. But I am finding that sometimes I do feel more fatigued on a ride some months than others.

I did a tempo ride yesterday. I finished the first tempo portion okay, but felt really bad at the end and right after. I decided not to do anymore and just rode slowly home. That was my 3rd day on my period. Tonight I did a club ride, which is pretty fast paced. Again, I did okay getting up to the regroup at the top of the climb ... but fell off the group quite easily on the way back and took the fast route home instead of finishing the usual route. I recall that same thing happening before when on my period ... but not always.

So, I guess I'm finding that when my period is affecting me, I can ride pretty well for a while, maybe 30 minutes or so ... then I kind of fall apart. Yet, this does not "always" happen. Sometimes I can ride strong for a long time when I'm on my period. Maybe now that I'm 41 and maybe pre-menopausal ??? this could be affecting me? My symptoms before and during my periods seem to vary a lot more in the last few years than they used to. I get night sweats, but not every month or sometimes not as bad some months than others. So I guess it's the same with how I feel when I ride. Some months will affect me more than others. That sucks!

How do your periods affect you and is there anything you have found that helps? I'm wondering if eating certain kinds of foods would help ... probably all the healthy ones! Haha! I also wonder if I'm getting lower on iron some months than others. I did get full blown anemia last August after having lost some weight during the previous 6 months. I was riding better than ever, my period hit and boom ... my riding sucked! It took a long time to get over it and get back into training. (A coach had told me to eat red meat! He was way more into natural foods than supplements. And told me it's fairly common for women losing weight and training a lot to get anemia.) So maybe I'm more susceptible to low iron levels, especially at that time of the month, and should be taking iron during my cycle ... so I can cycle! Haha! I crack me up. After I got anemia and my training basically came to a halt, I also started letting myself eat more and my weight slowly came back. So now I'm back in weight loss mode ... though I feel I've had plenty of foods with iron, including red meat and eggs ... but maybe I need to up my iron even during my period.

Luckily I seemed to have avoided cramps in my life. I feel for you women who deal with that.

Anyways, so while I think I may have figured out my own issue while writing this ... iron ... I'm still curious what your experiences are.